Finland's 'FinRelax' Program Is All About Slow Travel and the Outdoors

You book a trip to a new city and are bombarded with bar, museum and restaurant options, each one more eager than the next to get you in the door. But, Finland wants you to stay the heck out… Outdoors that is. The country’s tourism board just announced their new FinRelax program, which encourages visitors to swap nightlife for nature by exploring the country's vast wilderness through a five-step process meant to transform each visitor into a new person.

The first step, of course, is getting into nature. Finland is known as the land of a thousand lakes, islands, and forests and boasts 39 national parks with some of the cleanest air and the purest lake water in Europe. Incredibly, around 65 percent of Finland’s total land area is covered in forest with hot spots like Nuuksio national park, which is less than an hour from Helsinki and is filled with valleys and gorges formed by the Ice Age. If you'd rather head underwater than above ground, head to Hossa's Lake Öllöri, set to become Finland’s 40th national park in June 2017, where you'll find clear water perfect for scuba diving.

Next, visitors are encouraged to spend time in a Finnish sauna, which won't be hard to find since there are more than 3 million of them in the country, ranging from ice or smoke saunas to hot cube or mobile saunas. The newest public sauna in Helsinki, Löyly opened in May 2016 and has a traditional Finnish smoke sauna and two other wood-heated saunas. For something a little more historical, stop by Kotiharju Sauna, the last genuine wood-heated public sauna in Helsinki that has been opened since 1928. Why so many saunas? They serve as a place for physical and spiritual cleansing, according to the Finns.

If you’re already going to a sauna, you might as well indulge in some local treatments, the third step of the Finnish detox. Peat therapy is a traditional Finnish form of treatment founded on the use of peat—a pure, natural product that comes in paste form like mud. Visitors are told to put the paste on their bodies before entering saunas or before a plastic wrap is applied around the body trapping in the moisture. It is then washed off after the treatment. The therapeutic effects include muscle relaxation, skin purification, the activation of hormone functions, an increase in circulation and metabolism, and the purging of toxins from the body.

Once you’ve detoxified, FinRelax suggests you fuel up on healthy foods by picking wild berries, mushrooms (or stop at veggie-centric Silvoplee in Helsinki if you don't feel like foraging) before going on to the final step of your rejuvenation process: adventure. Explore the charming coast of archipelagos, lakes, and rivers by kayak and canoe or head to the wilderness of Lapland for some skiing and Aurora Borealis viewing. There's even a lodge about an hour and half flight from Helsinki in Kakslauttanen where you can see the Northern Lights in bed from your glass igloo, open from August until the end of April.

And if you think this is all some hokey ploy just to get more tourists, you’re wrong. The Finns take their love of the outdoors and zenning out very seriously. There are 14 parks in Helsinki alone and residents believe so strongly in the healing power of forests that as much as 70 percent of the inhabitants of northern Finland annually visit the nation’s forests to trek or pick berries, according to the country’s tourism board.

“Finnish traditions and values of space, quiet and time are a treasure in the often boisterous world,” said Kiti Hakkinen, Program Manager for FinRelax, in a statement. “The new program aims to promote the rarities of peace and quiet that are forgotten in modern life.” Liisa Tyrvainen of Natural Resources Institute Finland agreed adding, “aesthetic experiences and the relaxing effect of a green environment lift the mood and help recover from stress.”

We're booking a trip just as soon as we are done with our third espresso of the day.